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You don't realize it, but you're both a grammar snob and a grammar slob. Sure, you roll your eyes at those fools who use language more sloppily than you do -- but you also get annoyed at those uptight prudes who judge you for being sloppy with your punctuation.

The challenge is to be literate without being judgmental. We all need to have a certain amount of patience with those who play too loosely with language. After all, language is evolving rapidly in this information-overload society. While some rules still apply, sloppiness is more acceptable now, whether in an instant message or a New York Times article. And no one diagrams a sentence anymore, right?

Still, having consulted with a range of business professionals, English teachers and professors and plain-clothed grammar police officers, I’ll offer a quick overview of which crimes against English are most likely to put off a potential employer (or to keep your current employer from promoting you to a better position).

GRAMMAR FELONIES

Irregardless. Regardless of context, irregardless is not a word. You just mean regardless. Hold back those first two letters and save your career.

Could of/Should of. You wrote a thank-you email to your interviewer saying, "I could of talked all day to you." You could have had the job, but now you won't.

Loser and Looser. Go to any Internet message board and you’ll see some trash-talker ridiculing a rival as a looser. This person is the true loser and deserves every manner of ridicule. If you write a cover letter saying, “I can’t see your company loosing if you hire me,” plan on them telling you to get lost.

Antidote vs. anecdote. You share an anecdote with me if we’re chatting. You only share an antidote with me if I’ve been poisoned.

The last one above is an example of homonyms and near-homonyms, words that sound alike and thus are used interchangeably by a generation that hears words but doesn’t really bother to learn how to write them. Other common confusions include: dominate/dominant; patients/patience; allude/elude; traitor/trader; liable/libel; threw/through; rout/route; and so forth/fourth. All these can be innocent mistakes, but they may show an employer a lack of deep literacy.

SERIOUS BUT FORGIVABLE OFFENSES

Call Jack and I. This is an odd mistake that even many CEOs make. Their problem is that they dimly recall English teachers or parents telling them that me and Jack is dumb, bad English. So they adjust by not using me even when they should. Helpful tip: You wouldn’t say, “Call I,” would you? So you shouldn’t say “Call Jack and I.”

You’re/Your. This one is the bane of many people’s existence, yet it’s such a common error that I can almost imagine it becoming acceptable English. I realize this a minority position among writers. A graduate of a prestigious university told me she intentionally uses your instead of you’re because the latter sounds too snobbish.

Mixing up adjectives and adverbs. If you say, “I feel badly for you,” this suggests you’re not skilled at feeling people. Better to just go ahead and feel bad. The use of badly arises because, ironically, some people think that it sounds more polished and that it thus must be correct. Wrong. In most cases, though, people use adjectives instead adverbs out of laziness: “You run fast” would be a typical example. [UPDATE: A few astute Forbes readers have pointed out that fast in this context is an acceptable modifier. A child saying, "I run good" would have been a better example of misuse. Our apologies!]

MISDEMEANORS

Its/It's. I'm going to suggest, without any scientific evidence, that its/it's is viewed even less negatively than your/you're. That's because auto-correct is more likely to be your accomplice in this crime.

Than/then. My father said that you are taller than I am. Then he said we’re both shorter than Eva.

DEBATABLE POINTS

Split infinitives. If you say, “She began to quickly scribble out some notes,” some snobs (like the writers at The Economist) would criticize you. But if you move the adverb around, you might change the sense of the sentence—and at a more common-sense level, you just sound stiff and awkward (like The Economist does on most days). Half of the snobbiest grammar experts I know insist you should still never split an infinitive. But the other half, who I suspect are correct, say that the ban on split infinitives is based on a naive attempt to, um, improperly import Latin rules into English. So the next time that someone criticizes you for using grammar badly, just sniff and say, "Oh, I see you're using the discredited neo-Latin construction, eh?"

They or he or she. Many grammar snobs feel it’s a crime to say, “If an accountant wants to be careful, they should double-check their records.” Yet there’s a case for this being a reversion to a well-established practice of mixing plural pronouns with singular subjects. And it gets around the clunkiness of saying “he or she.”

She's busier than me. On its face, this would seem to be a mistake, and colleagues have often ripped me for this one. So it was to my delight that I found that some would say that this too falls into a false Latin analogy. Either "me" or "I" is okay. As Strunk and White noted, “She’s busier than I” might display better grammar but “She’s busier than me” might display better judgment.

[Again, did you hear that, grammar police? Sometimes arresting people too often can come back to haunt you!]

Not every grammar mistake will hurt your career, nor should it. But a little more attention to detail can pay off, in an age in which attention to detail has never been more lacking.

[We apologize for any grammar errors that wiggled their way into this post. Please feel free to share your own insights and experiences with our Forbes.com community in the comments section. And hit "Follow" at the top of the page to receive notification of more career and management advice from Rob Asghar.]